09:12 – It was 62.7F (17C) when I took Colin out at about 0650 this morning, foggy and with a mist just short of a drizzle. When I looked at the thermometer an hour or so later, it’d dropped to 59F. We have cool temperatures, rain, and thunderstorms in the forecast for most of this week.
We got a lot of bottles filled yesterday, with several hundred more to fill today. With the downstairs unfinished area crammed full of furniture, books, etc., we’re short of space to put the completed bags of bottles, so they’re just sitting on the dining room table for now.
With a few exceptions, notably herbs, the stuff Barbara planted in the garden and in containers out on the deck is thriving. She did a row of turnips in the garden, which she thinned yesterday. We’re going to have lots of turnips. And Barbara has named herself “Weeding Wench”. I made no comment; having been married for 30+ years, I know better.
When she came in from the garden, she said she needed to put in trellises for some of the plants. She plans to use metal fence posts and twine. So I ordered her 1.3 miles (2 km) of twine on Amazon, which should be a lifetime supply.
Prepper humor:
We’re having fried rice for dinner tonight, so while Barbara was vacuuming the dining room I was in the kitchen making a batch of rice to refrigerate until dinner time. The rice can had less than a cup of rice, so I shouted, “We’re out of rice. Do we have any more?”
That, coming from a guy who has 600 or 700 pounds of rice stored, was very close to a death wish. I watched Barbara building pressure for about three seconds, and then added, “upstairs?”, which defused the situation nicely.
Fortunately, she didn’t think about the 50-pound bag sitting up here waiting to be repackaged. So she relaxed immediately, came into the kitchen, and started looked in the under-counter cabinets. No rice, so we went downstairs, made it through the mine-field that our deep storage room has become, and retrieved a 3-liter (6-pound) bottle of white rice. It made a satisfying sucking/hissing sound when I opened it. The oxygen absorber did its job.
Further prepper humor: when she stabs you after your next attempt at prepper humor, you’ll have enough bandages on hand to keep from bleeding to death.
60 here and rising a few degrees, with the same kinda rain showers expected until sun again on Tuesday.
It’s a bright and quiet overcast, the kind where you expect a t-storm within an hour or two, but we’ll see.
On the outside work details again today; made decent progress yesterday, hope to continue. If we get more than just sprinkles or drizzle later and tomorrow, we’ll be working on the back porch, I guess. Assuming Mrs. OFD shows up back here at some point.
80F here with 91%RH Overcast, bright, and occasional spatters of rain. MUCH better than the tstorms that were on the map for today.
Prepper fail! Wife got up to make birthday breakfast for the daughter. Asks me “Are we out of eggs??” Me- “Not out, maybe short…” I ended up making a quick trip to the grocery for fresh eggs. I had enough for normal breakfast until a regular grocery trip, with liquid and powdered backup, but you can ‘t make special birthday eggs benedict with powdered eggs………
That’s the first ‘gotta get it’ run to the store in a LONG time. (and normally, would have just said, scrambled today, sorry.)
The beans I planted in the fence boxes are already 4 inches high. They’re growing like weeds! Lettuce is poking up, and so are the radishes. That’s pretty good for just a couple days.
BTW, I am putting Miracle Gro potting mix (in the light blue bag) on my DO NOT BUY list. It has some weird additives that are supposed to help with water retention and management. What they REALLY do is form an impermeable layer on the top of the pot that keeps water from getting to the plant roots. Put an inch of water in the pot, watch it get absorbed, think it’s soaking in. NOT! Scratch the surface and the pot is filled with dry as ash soil, with a thin layer of wet on top. THAT’S why my stuff wasn’t growing. No water at the root despite daily watering.
The new mix of locally produced potting soil and black cow manure seems to be producing much better results.
n
The beans I planted in the fence boxes are already 4 inches high. They’re growing like weeds! Lettuce is poking up, and so are the radishes. That’s pretty good for just a couple days.
Digging out a sprinkler head on Friday, I got a lesson on the composition of the local soil. Since we live on the edge of the Hill Country, below about an inch or so, I hit a mix of clay and 1-inch rocks.
(My California transplant neighbor, “Jian-Yang” likes to scalp his lawn to about 1/2 inch high with his $99 Home Depot clearance electric mower. I have a pretty good idea how my sprinkler head got mangled since it is one of two that sit on the property line.)
I will have to keep an eye out for discarded fence material for planter boxes. With the big Realtor Full Employment -er- Memorial Day holiday weekend coming up here in Austin, a lot of homes are being prepped for listing on the MLS, and I’ve noticed that fence replacement generally proceeds a “For Sale” sign appearing in the front yard.
” fence replacement generally proceeds a “For Sale” sign appearing in the front yard.”
That is a great observation. I’ll keep that in mind as we look for rental property.
Sweet.
n
That is a great observation. I’ll keep that in mind as we look for rental property.
That’s the pattern I’ve noticed outside Austin. I’m not sure about where you live in Texas, but Memorial Day Weekend is a big three days for real estate locally due to the length of time it takes to close a house. Anyone with kids, buying or selling, wants closings done ahead of the schools starting in early August, and the process can take up to 60 days around here.
Good intel in any case, at least for that area. I’ll look around up here for poops and giggles.
Lotta places still for sale in this AO that have been for sale for the last few years, and word has it that the owners will not come down a DIME on their asking prices. We got this place during a VA guaranteed loan window of opportunity when the couple selling were very motivated, as they say, to sell.
Now we just gotta put another few tens of thousands into it over the next five to ten years, I guess. More new windows, shutters, electric, plumbing, back porch, bathroom, garage/tool shed, generator, etc.
Lotta places still for sale in this AO that have been for sale for the last few years, and word has it that the owners will not come down a DIME on their asking prices.
Right now, the floor in a lot of places is set by the FHA conforming loan limit. 30 year fixed rates below 4% mean that the Fed is still buying most of the paper.
Also, if, like Austin, your area has appeal to Chinese or Indian buyers bringing in family money from overseas, sellers don’t have to budge on price or put any work into the houses to close a deal. The house next door to us was a trashed rental when the family bought it in a bidding war last Memorial Day.
“Also, if, like Austin, your area has appeal to Chinese or Indian buyers bringing in family money from overseas…”
Nope. Maybe down in Burlap/Chittenden County, but not up here. It seems to mainly be peoples’ second homes, vay-cay homes, etc. Or third homes, in some cases, and now for whatever reason they’re gonna try to unload ’em. And there they sit, year after year.
many people have the mistaken idea that something is worth what they think it’s worth.
In the real world, something is only worth what someone ELSE will pay for it.
You see it with used guns, homes, cars, etc. Doesn’t matter what YOU paid for it, I”M not paying that much!
n
There it is.
Incidentally, WRT guns; things are going pretty well; manufacturers trying like the dickens to move their stuff, prices dropping. I saw a case of 5,000 rounds of .22LR, decent brand, going for $450. If I’d had it lying around here, I would have scarfed it up.
Now’s a good time for anyone looking to pick up a decent semi-auto pistol (Caniks have a good rep and are $300 and under) and/or a pretty decent AR from even big names like S&W and Ruger. Grab a shotgun and a bunch of ammo, learn how it all works, and for home and vehicle and personal defense, you’re on your way. Get the spouse and kids involved if possible.
So, Obola was a great firearms salesman but Trump is one of the worst?
There’s a place on the market a couple of houses from me. Sat partially finished for 3-4 years. They’re on their second agent, been for sale for at least a year I think. Must be asking too much.
Partially finished means gut to the studs. You can’t trust someone elses work,esp if they were just banging things together to hit a payment milestone.
There is a development near here that had 3 failed developers. Each time they stripped it to the bare dirt and started from scratch.
Finally someone got to the point where they had a couple of houses done, and could sell and finish the project.
n
It seems to mainly be peoples’ second homes, vay-cay homes, etc.
Could still be Mainland Chinese bugout pads waiting for the excrement to hit the AC. I saw lots of those around us in Vantucky, totally skewing the real estate market. SW WA State is a cr*phole, but it offers easy access to PDX with regular direct flights to Asia.
How close is Toronto?
15:30 97F (predicated high) and 17%RH so while hot not too uncomfortable.
Pool still feels chilly after week of unseasonable cool temps.
Busy weekend start with 3am Friday wake up to get out to Cal State U Bakersfield for the first grad commencement. While daughter got diploma back in January she wanted to do the walk. 7:30 start and was done by 10am. I feel sorry for those that had theirs at the noon time ceremony, must have been miserable as high was about 95.
Party at home Friday night and big dinner at Basque restaurant last night. All guests are gone and I’m thinking nap time.
“….get out to Cal State U Bakersfield for the first grad commencement. While daughter got diploma ….”
Little nostalgia here: My daughter graduated from Cal State U Long Beach. My son also.
“How close is Toronto?”
About 400 miles southwest of here, 6.5 hours of driving. No thanks.
Haven’t been to Bakersfield in about 17 years. Largest basque community outside spain, IIRC.
REALLY long runway at the airport.
n
About 400 miles southwest of here, 6.5 hours of driving. No thanks.
Oh, right. You’re closer to Moh-re-al.
Now’s a good time for anyone looking to pick up a decent semi-auto pistol
My local gun shop, run by a retired SEAL who lives across the street from me, was selling S&W M&P pistols for under $350 and they included a $75 rebate so I’m paying less than $300 for quality semi auto and I am buying 9mm at Walmart for $8.90 a box. It’s a good time to stock up. Did a site inventory today and found I have over 2000 rnds 22lr, 400 of 9mm, and 1200 5.56. My off site storage of course is greater.
Haven’t been to Bakersfield in about 17 years. Largest basque community outside spain, IIRC.
I learned to love Basque food there !
Congrats, Mr. H. Fine job!
Wot’s the diff between Basque food and Spanish food? Not many Basques around here. Or Spanish.
Whelp, here’s a bit of a note before I catch some early zzzzzzzs.
Velveeta cheese is not really shelf stable.
We’ve got a couple of recipes that call for velveeta, so I have a bunch of the smallest size blocks. We never finish the block before it gets rotten or dried out, so I buy the small ones.
Went out tonight for some cheese product, and found that all 6 were damaged. One had been hollowed out by rodents. and all the others were brown and hard.
There were dozens of pin holes in the foil pouch. That let the air in, and the rest is history.
I guess I’ll try freezing a couple and I’ll vac seal a couple and see if that helps.
So, even though you CAN store velveeta cheese-like-stuff on the shelf, it won’t survive in its own crap packaging.
nick
Oh, and self stable kids meal, spaghetti and meatballs, NOT edible after 4 years past its ‘best buy’ date. MIGHT have still been nutritious but it was shrunken, stiff, and discolored. Package was still under vacuum so no rot, but not something I was willing to even taste.
n
“One had been hollowed out by rodents…”
One word, and I bet we all know what it is, too; starts with “C” and ends with “T.”
And just crossed Velveeta off our food prep storage list. Thanks!
Touted as the biggest arms deal in Murkan history, 110 BILLION in sales to the Saudi schweinhunden:
https://straightlinelogic.com/2017/05/21/why-is-trump-rewarding-saudi-war-crimes-with-more-weapons-by-kristine-beckerle/
@OFD
Wot’s the diff between Basque food and Spanish food? Not many Basques around here. Or Spanish.
It’s not really Basque like they might serve there. It’s boarding house food with somethings that make it seem so. Originally it started in boarding houses in East Bakersfield where lots of European immigrants settled where the Basque sheepherders stayed at in the winter. Served family-style where everyone shared one big meal with lots of dishes. One place, Noriega’s still does that. They actually won a James Beard award.
We went to Woolgrowers last night. Meals were individually ordered. French bread, soup mostly vegetables, heavy with cabbage and leak. Also beans which some add to the soup (I like them separately) and a tomato salsa, rathe hot. Next up salad, green, vinegar and oil or a caesar style, marinated tomatoes and pickled tongue (cold beef, sliced thin and marinated). Main course, french fried potatoes, spaghetti, vegetable (green beans) and your entree, I had pork chops with garlic. Other things like fried chicken, steaks(best filet mignon), lamb chops, toast beef, fish, shrimp or oxtail stew. All best with lotsa garlic. Red wine, cheap table served cold. Coffee ice cream and maybe blue cheese for desert.
When we first started going there almost 50 years ago it was $2 or $2.50 for steak. Last night 22 people was $600+. Place is packed, especially weekends.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q-yaco9NbVg/WMgJLwJSDiI/AAAAAAAAPHE/YGjNx2K_mPsjJcGeTnZbhF-62RKRHrsTwCEw/s640/woolgrowers.jpg
Just an aside, the Mexican restaurants here about used to always call their food Spanish. Maybe about 40-50 years ago they finally started calling it Mexican. I guess it was an image thing.
“Crotchrot”? Eww… you’re nasty.
Thanks for the explanation, Mr. dreck; sounds mostly like home-cooked or diner food kicked up a notch or two. Works for me.
” Eww… you’re nasty.”
Hey! I resemble that!!!
Finally heard from wifey just before midnight; got hung up on Route 30 south of Middlebury due to some kind of major accident, can’t find anything on the nooz about it yet, though. Had a weekend arts class involving kiln work with silver and looks like she may have found her art/jewelry niche as there is nothing being done along those lines up here. (she was in southern VT, land of the second and third homes previously mentioned). She’ll be taking a teacher cert class in it for three days down in Windsor, CT, and probably investing in another kiln (she has one already, but the new one will be programmable for this stuff). Apparently she could make beaucoups piastres doing this, even just the teaching part of it. And since her contractual employers in Mordor are screwing her around and probably cutting her assignments back in favor of all the “new blood” allegedly rolling in, this may work out for the best. Along with my own several sources of revenue pending…
We may both be able to tell would-be job employers to sod off this year, once and for all, and stop slaving for other people. Frankly, based on hourly rates, we could make more dough per hour than we ever did slaving for assholes. But out of that would have to come taxes, and I’m thinking….one of those cooperative medical coverage organizations, instead of the standard-issue fraudulent and worthless health insurance…
Anyone here gone down that road? They mostly seem to be Christian-organized; you pay a family that needs the help directly every month, based on your own family financial situation, and should you and yours ever need the help, people would be sending checks to YOU. Does not seem to be a fly-by-night deal and looks like more folks are getting into it as a means of not having to mess around anymore with variations of ObolaCARE. Costs reported to be half the usual, too. By reputable people who’ve put this information in writing.
https://thehealthcoop.com/
Probably a Protestant operation but we’ll convert them all, of course.
_Uncertain World: The EMP Survivor Series Book 2_ by Chris Pike
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1537423312/
Book number two of a three book post apocalyptic series. I read the POD (print on demand) version in trade paperback with very nice paper and fonts. There may be a fourth book in the series soon according to the author. I am reading the third book in the series now. All of the books are a quick read since they are around 220 pages long.
For the first time that I have noticed, the author has credited an editor person, a formatter person, and a cover art person for this self published book. Interesting, I liked the attributions.
After the EMP, the southern USA is in total shutdown. The protagonists ride horses to Louisiana to try to find the man’s daughter who was on a Southwest Airlines jet that crashed in the Atchafalaya swamp. Returning back to their ranch in east Texas, the situation has deteriorated even more since they left.
I enjoyed the book very much, especially since it is set in Texas where I live and in Louisiana. However, I disagree with the author that an EMP over the USA will kill car computers. Regular computers wired to the grid, yes. But car computers live in the horrible environment of automobiles with under-voltage, over-voltage, current spikes, etc, etc, etc. Cars will probably survive the EMP but your electrical grid, not.
My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (291 reviews)
“Touted as the biggest arms deal in Murkan history, 110 BILLION in sales to the Saudi schweinhunden”
Seems like one of those “America First” deal. And the rest of the region will follow soon in buying more guns to compensate; if not from Trump, from Putin or EU. Sad example of cultural export from the “civilized” world.
OFD wrote:
“Probably a Protestant operation but we’ll convert them all, of course.”
Reminds me of Matt 23:15… 🙂
I have never understood the US-Saudi relationship. Saudi Arabia has a terrible record on human rights, women’s rights, and other things the US claims to care about. The US doesn’t need their oil anymore – y’all could produce enough on your own. Saudi Arabia is implicated in 9/11, at least in the sense that most of the terrorists came from there.
So…why exactly does one want to sell them modern weaponry?
[snip] So…why exactly does one want to sell them modern weaponry? [snip]
Because the Big Defense Contractors will profit mightily. They employ, directly & indirectly, a nearly obscene number of people, and their share this gold with politicians of every stripe. Even the most pacifist leaning pols (usually Ds) love defense jobs in *their* district, even as they rail against the military, while the anti-Big Government types (usually Rs) similarly sing Hosannas to pork that floats through their fiefdom. A pox on all their houses!!
“So…why exactly does one want to sell them modern weaponry?”
Confidence in the value of the American dollars held in foreign hands is dependent on its ability to be exchanged for oil. Saudi as the world’s major producer of oil for many years and leader of OPEC is the foundation of the oil for dollars and only dollars idea. Note that the strongmen of Iraq and Libya’s noise making on accepting Euro’s and gold for oil happened shortly before their removals. Wouldn’t surprise me if the Marines get sent to Venezuela in the near future for “humanitarian” reasons.
Weaponry has little economically productive value. The Saudi people won’t eat better for buying our weapons. Employees of Raytheon and Lockheed, etc. will, so the 100 billion dollar pittance is a good thing for us as it reduces the trillions of bucks held by foreigners and makes for politically popular headlines.
We may both be able to tell would-be job employers to sod off this year
Outstanding if you can pull it off. Get the IRS off your back and life will be good again.
Nightraker: Good explanation. I see lots of friends asking WHY do we support the Saudis and I answer “Would you rather have Iran (or an Iran backed regime) in control of all that oil & cash?”
“I see lots of friends asking WHY do we support the Saudis and I answer “Would you rather have Iran (or an Iran backed regime) in control of all that oil & cash?””
Iran gets demonized as their sectarian fundamentalism leads them to oppose the oil for dollars deal. Or maybe it is the other way around. And the holiest Islamic sites are in Saudi Arabia. Just a giant simmering ball of conflict. Dollars are the lube helping to keep the lid on…
And the rest of the world is looking to break the grip of the petrodollar. Russia, china, and iran in particular are replacing SWIFT, and have announced oil deals denominated in their native currencies.
This is not a good thing for the US.
n
We may both be able to tell would-be job employers to sod off this year
Yay! Make sure you start integrating all of this into your LLC. Get a good CPA to come in quarterly if you can’t/don’t want to polish the books. I use one to make sure everything is hunky dory.
Ain’t counting chickens before they hatch, but we’re on it. And on the same page finally, I think. I’ll reinforce that today and set up a spreadsheet or whatever to track our financial chit accordingly that we can both pull up and look at regularly. Also consolidating all the Fed and state tax paperwork and making phone calls to see what else we need to do. When we’re both home, we gotta alternate between house and yard chit and doing this tax and financial chit. Then when she’s gone, I’ll simply continue it on this end, while also working other revenue angles.
I have my own LLC and will be looking to integrate it via Gnucash with a biz account at our bank and advise wife to do the same; will also research local CPA people accordingly.
She should only be doing a one-week gig per month from now on, and only for the next three or four years, if that long. And I just need to double the money I’m bringing in now.
A nice Xmas present to ourselves would be to have our ducks lined up pretty well by then.
I don’t especially like Iran but they are not our sworn enemies like the Saudis and other Sunni maggots are. If our leaders had any sense they would have patched things up with Iran 20 years ago.
So…why exactly does one want to sell them modern weaponry?
As a counterbalance to Iran.
I don’t especially like Iran but they are not our sworn enemies like the Saudis and other Sunni maggots are.
Yes they are. One of their national sports is getting crowds together to chant “Death to America”.
Yes they are. One of their national sports is getting crowds together to chant “Death to America”.
So? Lots of countries do that.
I once read that around the time of 9/11 Iran offered to settle US-Iran hostility on terms highly favourable to the US. They were ignored.
We need to remember it’s the governments that are our enemies, not the people, per se. Just like OUR gummint is their enemy. And all too often, OUR enemy, too.
I’m not so sure about that, OFD. Not unless you roll the Islamorrhoid religious establishment into “government”, which would actually be fair enough.
But, bottom line, my real response is the one I keep coming back to: I don’t care. I don’t care if their secular or sectarian leaders are driving the easily-led masses into hating and attacking us. I don’t care if there’s something intrinsically wrong in the culture or the genetics of the people who hate and attack us. I don’t care if the US or UK governments did something mean to them or their ancestors last year or a hundred years ago. All that matters to me is that they are a threat to my children.
All that matters to me is that they are a threat to my children.
And Mr. Steve wins the internet today.
@SteveF
+ a bunch
Agreed, I would just add that our own gummint is also a threat to us and our children.